VERO BEACH, Fla. – Baseball prospects come in many forms, but top pitching prospects usually come in only one. They are golden boys with eye-popping fastballs and eye-popping signing bonuses, and from the moment they join whatever organizations are lucky enough to draft them, their arms are treated as priceless jewels.

James McDonald wasn’t one of those prospects.

Not until now, anyway.

Six years ago, as a senior at LongBeach Poly High, he was all but invisible, almost literally so if he turned sideways. But destiny plays out in strange ways sometimes: Afateful telephone conversation between a first-year scouting director and an area scout; a fortuitous draft-day decision that opened the door just a crack; a mechanical tweak that knocked that door off its hinges.

And now here he is, on the Dodgers’ major-league roster, wearing a major-league uniform in spring training, and standing on the brink of being a major-league pitcher as early as this summer.

“In my personal opinion, if the physical part of his game holds up, I think he could certainly be there and help these guys out this year,” said Dodgers assistant general manager Logan White, who took McDonald in the 11th round of White’s first draft as the Dodgers’ scouting director in 2002.

“My hope is that we have such a good staff and everybody stays healthy enough that we don’t have to hurry with him. But I do think he could be there sometime this year.”

McDonald, a right-hander with maturity and savvy beyond his 23 years, pitched himself onto the organization’s radar last summer, going a combined 13-9 with a 3.07 ERA and 168strikeouts in 1342/3 innings at high Single-A Inland Empire and Double-A Jacksonville (Fla.). That followed a 2006 season in which he had a deceptive 5-10 record despite posting a solid 3.98 ERA at Single-A Columbus (Ohio), where he also had more than a strikeout an inning but issued too many walks.

But early last season, Inland Empire pitching coach Charlie Hough began working with McDonald on a slight change in his delivery.

“My front elbow was really high,” McDonald said. “Charlie and Logan White talked to me about getting it down lower to put me on more of a downhill plane.

“I would say it took about a month before I started getting really comfortable with it, and we really didn’t start doing it until (the season began). But we worked and worked, and eventually it just felt natural.”

His breakthrough season ended with McDonald standing on the field at Dodger Stadium before a game in September to accept a plaque proclaiming him the Dodgers’ Minor League Pitcher of the Year.

With that, it was clear McDonald had arrived. There was a time, though, when only one member of the organization even knew who he was. That would be Bobby Darwin, the Dodgers’ Southern California-area scout.

“I was talking to Bobby one day before that draft, and I asked him if he had any kids who were tall and didn’t throw really hard but might project well down the road,” White said. “Bobby said yeah, he had this kid he really liked. He only threw 86-89 (mph), but he was tall, rangy and athletic, and I thought he would fill out. I also liked the way he competed. So we took him as an early draft-and-follow.”

“Draft and follow” means drafting a player and sending him to junior college for a year so the club maintains signing rights while the player continues to develop. The tactic generally isn’t used on a player drafted as early as the 11thround, which is when McDonald was taken. And it generally doesn’t lead to $150,000 signing bonuses, which the Dodgers gave McDonald after his lone season at Golden West College in Huntington Beach.

But White and Darwin believed McDonald had a chance to be special. Sixyears later, that faith is paying off.

McDonald was one of about 20 participants in the Dodgers’ two-week rookie development program last month at Dodger Stadium. The event was overseen by assistant GM DeJon Watson, but general manager Ned Colletti and manager Joe Torre made a point of meeting individually with every player in the two days Torre was in attendance. They said McDonald’s makeup was evident in what he told them.

“He said he believes he can be a big-league pitcher, but what he is trying to do is become a great big-league pitcher,” Colletti said. “He said doesn’t just want to be another player. He said, `I have a lot to learn and a long way to go, but just getting to the big leagues won’t be enough for me.’ I liked that a lot, and you don’t always hear it.”

So, even if McDonald is no more than a season away from being major-league ready, he remains years away from his ultimate destination.

“My baseball knowledge is better now,” he said. “Last year, I learned how to pitch with what I had and how to maintain good poise on the mound. That made me more confident, which is what made everything really click. But I’m still not as consistent as I want to be.”

McDonald continues to hone a new pitch, a second curveball to go with the big, sweeping, strike-one curve he always had. It is something Hough suggested to him early last season, before McDonald moved up to Jacksonville.

This one sinks and can be used as a putaway pitch with two strikes, and it will make McDonald especially tough to face if he can perfect it.

But what really sets him apart from most pitchers at his stage is his comportment on the mound.

“What he really learned last year was how to hang in there when things didn’t go right,” Hough said. “He learned how to hold runners and how to pick up bunts. He can do a lot of little things to win a ballgame beyond just making (pitches).”

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